Tobacco Lawyers Called Greedy

TALLAHASSEE — High-powered lawyers representing Florida in its successful war with the cigarette industry were portrayed Tuesday as a scheming, corrupt ''cartel'' that was poised to funnel $20 million to a politically connected Texas firm.

In emotional testimony, Tallahassee attorney Tim Howard, who played a key role in securing the $11.3 billion settlement, urged a state Senate committee to launch a wide-ranging investigation of Florida's lengthy tobacco war and its bitter aftermath.

''This cartel wants to control and distribute fees and costs nationally in the billions of dollars - fees and costs made from state lawsuits . . . in violation of the ethics regulating attorney conduct,'' Howard told the Executive Business, Ethics and Elections Committee.

Once an insider in the state's tobacco crusade, Howard is now under attack from members of Florida's 11-firm legal Dream Team, which has denied him a share of fees sought in the case.

Also, Howard is fending off questions of conflict-of-interest in a controversy that led to the ouster last month of state Inspector General Harold Lewis, a 40-year friend of Gov. Lawton Chiles and another central figure in the tobacco lawsuit.

As a result of the settlement that Lewis and Howard helped forge, the state will receive $11.3 billion over 25 years to cover the public cost of treating thousands of sick smokers and to pay for anti-tobacco advertising and education programs.

After Howard's testimony Tuesday, committee chairman Sen. Charlie Crist, R-St. Petersburg, said he was ''very disturbed'' by the allegations and likely will announce a committee investigation today.

''I think we have a very unfortunate picture of government gone bad in Florida,'' Crist said.

He said the panel should learn more about how the trial team was chosen and whether a still-secret document outlining the division of legal fees may violate open government laws.

None of the lawyers has yet received fee payments, with the matter tied up in court challenges by Dream Team members.

For his part, Crist, a candidate for U.S. Senate against Democrat Bob Graham, also denied that partisan politics is motivating him to look closely at the tobacco case.

In recent years, Crist has twice held closely watched hearings into matters related to Chiles' office. The tobacco battle may be the Republican senator's newest attempt to boost his political stock, a Chiles spokeswoman said.

''In the hyperpolitical environment we live in, we have to be ready for anything,'' spokeswoman April Herrle said.

Indeed, Howard's testimony was far-reaching.

Perhaps his most dramatic revelation was his claim that members of the state's legal team were poised to steer $20 million in fees to an unidentified Texas firm that did no work in the Florida case, apparently in violation of Florida Bar rules.

Howard said the money was payback for the firm's financing hundreds of thousands of dollars in upfront expenses for South Carolina attorney Ronald Motley and Mississippi attorney Dickie Scruggs, two of the nation's leading tobacco lawyers.

In addition to their role in Florida, Scruggs and Motley's firms may represent as many as 30 states that have sued the tobacco industry, Howard said.

Although refusing to identify it, Howard said the Texas law firm in question was the largest single contributor to former Texas Gov. Ann Richards' 1990 campaign.

The firm also has worked with Scruggs and Motley in asbestos lawsuits and other cases.

Richards long had been speculated to be among those appointed to a three-person arbitration panel deciding legal fees in the proposed national settlement reached with tobacco last June.

That settlement, which would have divided $368 billion among 40 states, is under fire from critics and probably will not win approval from Congress in its current form.

But the settlement remains hotly sought by the beleaguered cigarette industry and the national law firms that stand to earn huge fee awards.

Scruggs and Motley's law firms did not return calls Tuesday. Neither did Orlando attorney Michael Maher, chairman of the Dream Team, also described by Howard as among four team members in league with Scruggs and Motley for fee awards not just from Florida but other states.

Still, while Crist is pushing hard for an investigation, some senators voiced reluctance to enter the tobacco fight. They questioned what role they could play in deciding issues of contract law and the ethics of fee distributions.

However, Sen. Jim Hargrett, D-Tampa, said since the matter involves actions taken by lawyers and officials representing the state, the committee is compelled to learn more about what behind-the-scenes deals may have been made.

''The can has now been opened and the worms are starting to come out,'' Hargrett said. ''I don't think we can put the top back on the can.''